Its been a long month… Vegas Trip Report and more

Its been quite a long month but very productive. I am sorry about my lack of real presence on the DTB Forums but hopefully I will be less distracted and able to come back with a renewed vigor.

By the end of June I was pushing hard to finish up a major project before taking a bunch of time off to spend with family, friends in vegas, and then at the beach. My coaching schedule was put on hold so that I could take a break but it didn't feel like much of a vacation.

Over July 4 weekend, I headed to Richmond VA to spend time with my wife's family. We went down to an area on the waterfront of Richmond and saw some fireworks and got roasted by the heat. It was exhausting.

July 5 I flew to Vegas to spend 5 days at the Aria on my own playing some tourneys and low limit cash games as well as catching up with friends. It was a blast. Ended up slightly up in cash game play nitting it up at the Aria. The poker room there is great and they have a good nightly tournament which I played once. I made the uber-big mistake of trying to bluff a guy off a top pair hand when almost every draw known to man came in on the river but he would not be deterred. I guess I should know better.

One particularly fun night I was sitting at a table at the Aria and I accomplished two feats of poker mediocrity. I outlasted Barry Greenstein and bluffed Johnny Chan off a hand. Let me explain. I have been sitting at a table since about 8am, right next to the high limit room at Aria where a $600/1200 mixed game was running. Just after I sat down I saw Barry Greenstein in the room eating breakfast. Sitting at my lowly $1/3 table I grinded away as the hours passed. I marked time by Barry's meals. Now Barry is eating lunch, now Barry is eating dinner. A guy I had played with the night before showed up at the table and said "Are you still here." He had seen me when I got there in the morning and proceeded to show me pictures of all the fun things he had done since I sat that morning. I said, well I'm trying to outlast Berry Greenstein. He just doesn't know it yet. As the hours ticked on by the joke became funnier to me. I think that Berry might have been able to read my mind (he seems to be able to do it on TV against top poker pros) and around Midnight I realized that the battle was on. A guy said I should just give up but I said "I can't go, Berry is my ride home." Never mind that he probably would never let me sit in his Lambo.

Sometime during all of this an Asian gentlemen sat down directly to my right. He dropped his card on the table and it said Johnny Chan. I remarked to him that the 1 seat has not been lucky (primarily to find out if he was the type to believe in luck at all) and then I said... "You're not THE Johnny Chan are you." He told me he had never heard that one before. I told him it was now my mission to bluff him off a hand. He did chuckle at that. However he was not laughing much when about 2h later, I raised the turn with air and he folded. I flipped it over and exclaimed "I bluffed Johnny Chan." Other people at the table chuckled but I think they were mostly pissed that I got the opportunity first. My table image was very tight so I was hoping it would allow me to exploit some big hands later. It never really did.

As the hours wore on it was about 2am and someone mentioned to me that Berry seemed to be gone. Nope, just bathroom break. Jeeze that guy is a total Machine. By 4am he was gone. I commented to the dealer that there seemed to be a back door that players could leave through without being seen. She claimed there is not but I never saw him go. Time to end my 20h session and get some sleep.

Vegas ended with some really fun times. The 2+2 party was great even though I didn't get there in time for the drinks or to pick up my lanyard. We actually played some live superturbo STT's winner takes all. First one I busted with KJs on the first hand. Second one I chopped with a nice girl who seemed totally clueless and was very appreciative not to have to play it out. I also went to dinner at table E at Jaleo which is a 20 course tasting menu. It was totally fantastic other than a little confusion at the end about the meaning of the statement "Tax and gratuity included." I thought it meant they were included. They thought it did not. Jaleo is one of the Staples of the DC area and I go all the time so it was great to do it out in Vegas since it is always a great meal.

After Vegas I was back for two days then headed to some ultra posh beach with my family. We have some friend's who's family own a beach house on a privatized island called Figure 8, near Wilmington NC. It was a beautiful beach and there were great waves during the time we were there. I have never been to a nicer beach in the US, and I have been to a bunch.

Anyways, we got back into town on Sunday night and I spent Monday/Tuesday trying to get back into the swing of things. I am a bit behind on my DTB video production but have a couple really cool topics set up once the "How well do you know your ABC SNG" series concludes this month. I plan to be a few video's ahead relatively soon as the next ones are topics that I have previously only shared with private students but are very well flushed out already.

Hope Everyone's summer is going well and that you are running well at the tables.
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